Permanent magnet electric motor systems typically include permanent magnet motor control circuits, such as inverters. Malfunctions in such motor control circuits can be caused by a large number of potential problems. For example, loss of bias power of the inverter, microprocessor malfunction, power switch malfunction or sensor malfunctions may cause the inverter to malfunction. In order to protect against such malfunctions, a fault handling strategy needs to be provided. However, many such fault handling strategies provide multiple fault modes which require extraneous information to either employ one or more of the strategies or switch between utilization of the various strategies.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a motor control circuit protection scheme which does not require extraneous information. In addition, it is desirable to provide a motor control protection scheme which is utilizable as either a primary protection for an inverter or a redundant backup protection for the inverter. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.